Biography

Charles-Joseph Natoire (3 March 1700 – 23 August 1777) was a French painter in the Rococo manner, a pupil of François Lemoyne and director of the French Academy in Rome, 1751–1775. Considered during his lifetime the equal of François Boucher, he played a prominent role in the artistic life of France. He is remembered above all for the series of the......

Biography

George Morland (26 June 1763 in London – 29 October 1804 in Brighton) was an English painter of animals and rustic scenes. George Morland was born in London on 26 June 1763. He was the son of Henry Robert Morland, and grandson of George Henry Morland, said by Cunningham to have been lineally descended from Sir Samuel Morland, while other biographer......

Biography

Giuseppe Castiglione, S.J. (simplified Chinese: 郎世宁 traditional Chinese: 郎世寧 pinyin: Lángshìníng) (19 July 1688 – 17 July 1766), was an Italian Jesuit lay brother and a missionary in China, where he served as an artist at the imperial court of three emperors – the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. He painted in a style that is a fusion of Eu......

Biography

François Marius Granet (17 December 1775 – 21 November 1849) was a French painter. François Marius Granet was born on 17 December 1775 in Aix-en-Provence his father was a small builder. As a boy his strong desires led his parents to place him, after some preliminary teaching from a passing Italian artist, in a free school of art directed by M. Cons......

Biography

Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houël (28 June 1735 – 14 November 1813) was a French painter, engraver and draftsman. During his long life Houël witnessed the reign of Louis XV, the French Revolution, and the period of Napoleon's First Empire. He was born at Rouen into a family of prosperous artisans, who sent him to the city's drawing academy when he wa......

Biography

William Mulready RA (1 April 1786 – 7 July 1863) was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticizing depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp. William Mulready was born in Ennis, County Clare. Early in his life, in 1792, t......

Biography

Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (16 June 1762 – 24 August 1844) was an itinerant Italian painter of frescoes, landscapes, vedute, capriccios and some religious works. He was born in Palmanova. When he was still a boy, his family moved to Brescia, where he saw the works of Girolamo Romani and decided to become a painter. Later, his family moved again, to ......

Biography

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (c. 1715 – 19 November 1783) was a French painter who specialized in portraits executed in pastels. Perronneau was born in Paris. He began his career as an engraver, apparently studying with Laurent Cars, whose portrait he drew, and working for the entrepreneurial printseller Gabriel Huquier, rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, makin......

Biography

Anton von Maron (January 8, 1733 – March 3, 1808) was an Austrian painter, active in Rome. Von Maron was born in Vienna, but moved at a young age to Rome. There, he studied under Anton Raphael Mengs, and became an accomplished portrait painter. He married a sister of Mengs, Therese Maron, who was a painter in her own right. He lived the rest of his......

Biography

Hermann Ernst Freund (15 October 1786, Uthlede, Lower Saxony – 30 June 1840, Copenhagen) was a German-born Danish sculptor. He is remembered in particular for his figures from Nordic mythology and for the Ragnarok Frieze. Born near Bremen, Germany, Freund was trained as a smith before studying at the Art Academy in Copenhagen where he was awarded a......

Biography

Johann Nepomuk Schaller (30 March 1777, Vienna - 16 February 1842, Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor. His most famous work is a bust of Beethoven, created at the request of the composer's friend Karl Holz. It was later presented to the Royal Philharmonic Society, London, on the occasion of the Beethoven Centennial. He was the younger brother of the ......

Biography

Martin Knoller (18 November 1725 – 24 July 1804) was an Austrian-Italian painter active in Italy who is remembered for his fresco work. Born in Steinach am Brenner near the Austrian city of Innsbruck, Knoller studied under Paul Troger and Michelangelo Unterberger in Salzburg and Vienna. Specializing in frescoes and altarpiece paintings, his first f......

Biography

Édouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret (30 December 1785 in Saint-Quentin, Aisne – 4 July 1869 in Paris 8e) was a French painter and lithographer. He was born at Saint-Quentin, Aisne, the son of a middle-class family in a mainly agricultural region, but also home to the celebrated General Cambronne and to illustrious notaries and Normandy judges. Pingret'......

Biography

Benjamin Wilson (June 21, 1721 – June 6, 1788) was an English painter, printmaker and scientist (natural philosopher). He was the 14th child of Major Wilson, a wealthy York clothier whose house was decorated by the French history painter, Jacques Parmentier (d 1730). His father's business failed and Wilson moved to London, where he became a legal c......

Biography

Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA (1727 – 14 December 1785) was an Italian painter and engraver, who lived in England from 1755. He is also called Giuseppe Cipriani by some authors. Much of his work consisted of designs for prints, many of which were engraved by his friend Francesco Bartolozzi. Cipriani was born in Florence. His family were originally ......

Biography

Thomas Malton (1748 – 7 March 1804), "the younger", was an English painter of topographical and architectural views, and an engraver. J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Girtin were amongst his pupils. He is designated "the younger" to differentiate him from his father Thomas Malton, the elder. Malton was born in London, the son of Thomas Malton the elder (......

Biography

Robert Jacques François Faust Lefèvre (24 September 1755 in Bayeux – 3 October 1830 in Paris) was a French painter of portraits, history paintings and religious paintings. He was heavily influenced by Jacques-Louis David and his style is reminiscent of the antique. Robert Lefèvre made his first drawings on the papers of a procureur to whom his fath......

Biography

James Frothingham (1786–1864) was an American portrait painter in Massachusetts and New York. James Frothingham was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He began as a chaise painter in his father's chaise manufactory. In the Boston area, he was a student of Gilbert Stuart. In 1888, The Atlantic Monthly described him as "a portraitist of talent", add......

Biography

Luigi Ademollo (April 30, 1764 – February 11, 1849) was an Italian painter. He was born in Milan. He studied at the Brera Academy, where he was taught by Giulio Traballesi, Giocondo Albertolli, and Giuseppe Piermarini. He left Milan in 1783 and traveled and worked in Rome and Florence. He married Margaret Cimballi Ferrara in Rome in 1792 and had se......

Biography

Thomas Barker (1769 – 11 December 1847), (known as 'Barker of Bath,') was a British painter of landscape and rural life. Barker was born in 1769, at Trosnant near the village of Pontypool, in Monmouthshire. His father, Benjamin Barker, was the son of a barrister, and practiced as an artist, but never attempted more than the portraits of horses. He ......

Biography

Henry William Pickersgill RA (3 December 1782 – 21 April 1875) was an English painter specialising in portraits. He was a Royal Academician for almost fifty years, and painted many of the most notable figures of his time. Born in London, Pickersgill was adopted in his youth by a Mr Hall, a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields, who financed his schooli......

Biography

Antonio González Velázquez (1723–1793), was a Spanish late-Baroque painter. Velázquez was born in Madrid into a family of artists his father Pablo González Velázquez and brothers Alejandro and Luis were all painters. He received a scholarship to travel to Rome in 1747 from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando where he was studying unde......

Biography

Count Anton[io] Maria Zanetti (1679–1757) was a Venetian artist, engraver, art critic, art dealer and connoisseur. He formed a collection of engraved gems, of which he published a lavish catalogue. Zanetti spent his early manhood making wise investments in marine insurance, accumulating sufficient capital to support his true vocation, as a writer a......

Biography

Thomas Daniell RA (1749 – 19 March 1840) was an English landscape painter. He spent seven years in India, accompanied by his nephew William, also an artist, and published several series of aquatints of the country. Thomas Daniell was born in 1749 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. His father was the landlord of the Swan Inn at Chertsey (where he was ......

Biography

Mather Brown (baptized October 11, 1761 – May 25, 1831) was a portrait and historical painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts, but active in England. Brown was the son of Gawen and Elizabeth (Byles) Brown, and descended from the Rev. Increase Mather on his mother's side. He was taught by his aunt and around 1773 (age 12) became a pupil of Gilbert St......

Biography

Ammi Phillips (April 24, 1788 – July 11, 1865) was an American itinerant portrait painter active in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York for five decades. After his death he was forgotten for decades until his oeuvre was reconstructed by Barbara and Larry Holdridge, collectors and students of American folk art, with the eventual support of Mary......

Biography

Biography

Chester Harding (September 1, 1792 – April 1, 1866) was an American portrait painter. Harding was born at Conway, Massachusetts. Brought up in the wilderness of New York state, he was a lad of robust physique, standing over 6 feet 3 inches. His family removed to Caledonia, New York, when he was fourteen years old, and he was early thrown upon his o......

Biography

Giovanni Battista Cimaroli (1687–1771) was an Italian painter of rustic landscapes with farms, villas and graceful figures and capricci of ruins and views of towns in the Veneto. He was born in Salò on Lake Garda, not far from Brescia. He studied under Antonio Aureggio and later in Bologna with the landscape painter Antonio Calza, before moving to ......

Biography

Biography

Joseph Nollekens R.A. (11 August 1737 – 23 April 1823) was a sculptor from London generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century. Nollekens was born on 11 August 1737 at 28 Dean Street, Soho, London, the son of the Flemish painter Josef Frans Nollekens (1702–1748) who had moved from Antwerp to London in 1733. He stu......

Biography

James Stark (19 November 1794 – 24 March 1859) was an English landscape painter of the "Norwich School". Stark was born in Norwich, the youngest son of Michael Stark (1748–1831), a Scottish-born dyer, and showed a talent for art from an early age. He was educated at Norwich School where he became friends with John Berney Crome. He was then apprenti......

Biography

Pierre-Alexandre Aveline (1702–1760) was a French engraver, portraitist, illustrator, and printmaker. Aveline was born in Paris into a family of artists, including his father Pierre Aveline and brother Antoine Aveline. In 1737 he joined the Académie de peinture et de sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) in Paris. He primarily worked ......

Biography

Antoine Berjon (17 May 1754 – 24 October 1843) was a French painter and designer, among the most important flower painters of 19th-century France. He worked in a variety of media including oil, pastel, watercolour, and ink. Berjon was born in St Pierre de Vaise, a commune of Lyon, to the son of a butcher, and he first studied drawing with the local......

Biography

Biography

Frederick Richard Lee RA (10 June 1798 in Barnstaple, Devon – 5 June 1879 in Vleesch Bank, South Africa) was an English artist. Lee was the son of Thomas Lee of Barnstaple in north Devon and brother of Thomas Lee (Jnr), an architect. Frederick enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy on 16 January 1818, aged nineteen. Although no dated paintings ......

Biography

Penry Williams (1802 – 1885) was a Welsh artist who spent most of his life in Rome. He was born in 1802 at Merthyr Tydfil, the son of a house-painter. Sent to London by Sir John Guest and others, he studied in the schools of the Royal Academy under Henry Fuseli, and in 1821 gained a silver medal from the Society of Arts for a "drawing from the anti......

Biography

John Smart (c. 1740–1811), was an English painter of portrait miniatures. He was a contemporary of Richard Cosway, George Engleheart, William Wood and Richard Crosse. Smart was born in Norfolk, but not much is known of his early life. It is recorded that in 1755 he was runner up to Richard Cosway in a drawing competition for under-14s held by the S......

Biography

Biography

Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1777 – 3 January 1862) was a painter and sculptor and a member of the Wyatt family, who were well known in the Victorian era as architects and sculptors. Wyatt was born in London, the son of James Wyatt, the architect. He was the brother of Benjamin Dean Wyatt, the architect. Wyatt was educated at Eton College and joined the Ro......

Biography

Biography

Stefano Pozzi (9 November 1699 (1707?) — 11 June 1768) was an Italian painter, designer, draughtsman and decorator whose career was spent largely in Rome. Born in Rome, he was one of four artist sons of his father, an innkeeper: Rocco (1701–74) was an engraver, with whom Stefano worked on occasion Andrea (1718–69), a carver in ivory Giuseppe (1723–......

Biography

John Pine (1690–1756) was an English designer, engraver, and cartographer notable for his artistic contribution to the Augustan style and Newtonian scientific paradigm that flourished during the British Enlightenment. Little is known of Pine’s parents or ancestry. Biographical sketches frequently refer to him as black or of African ancestry, especi......

Biography

Biography

Biography

George Arnald ARA (1763 – 21 November 1841) was a British painter who specialised in landscapes, including topographical views to illustrated county histories. He is best known for his celebrated painting depicting the Battle of the Nile. George Arnald was born in 1763. One account places his birth in the village of Farndip (now Farndish) in Northa......

Biography

Biography

Arthur Pond (1705?–1758 London) was an English painter and engraver. Born about 1705, was educated in London, and stayed for a time in Rome studying art, in company with the sculptor Roubiliac. He became a successful portrait-painter. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1752, and died in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 9 Septe......

Biography

Biography

Biography

George Frost (1754–1821) was an English landscape painter who lived in Ipswich, Suffolk. Frost was the son of a builder at Ousden in Suffolk, and was originally brought up to his father's business. He subsequently obtained a post in the office of the Blue Coach at Ipswich where he worked until about eight years before his death. Frost had a natural......

Biography

Winthrop Chandler (6 April 1747 – 9 July 1790) was an American artist known for his portraits, mainly of family members and neighbors, and a few landscapes. He also worked as an ornamental artist. Chandler was born in Woodstock, Connecticut. He was the son of William Chandler, a farmer, and Jemima Bradbury Chandler of Woodstock, CT. After his fathe......

Biography

Biography

Biography

Benjamin Vandergucht or Van der Gucht (1753–1794) was a picture-dealer, restorer and painter. He was the thirty-second child of Gerard Vandergucht the engraver, and one of twins. He studied drawing in St Martin's Lane Academy, and on the foundation of the Royal Academy he became one of the first students in its schools. Vandergucht became better kn......

Biography

Samuel Austin (died 1834), was an English water-colour painter. Austin was a native of Liverpool. He commenced life as a banker's clerk, but eventually gave up a good position in order to devote himself entirely to the art in which he had excelled as an amateur, and of which he was enthusiastically fond. He exhibited water-colour drawings at the So......

Biography

Charles Catton the younger (30 December 1756 – 24 April 1819) was an English slave owner, topographical artist, illustrator and theatrical scene-painter. Catton, was born in London, the son of Charles Catton the elder. He received art tuition from his father and also studied at the Royal Academy schools. He travelled extensively through England and......